The present invention is directed towards image processing and display systems, and more particularly towards a printed article display system for displaying printed articles over remote connections such as the Internet.
Modern computer systems with interactive graphics have greatly enhanced the printing process, particularly in the area of pre-press setup. In the printing field, many software and computer applications allow increased speed and efficiency of jobs such as typesetting, color separation, layout and spacing calculations.
Another area which has found limited advancements in computer processing is the preprocessing and display of images which are to be printed by a batch printing process. These graphic applications often attempt to display images in a xe2x80x9cwhat you see is what you getxe2x80x9d format. However, such display systems are still problematic in that what is displayed, for example, on a computer monitor screen is not identical to what will be printed. Variations such as font sizing, layout and detail (for example dots per inch), spacing are not reproduced accurately. Often such systems use approximated font sizes, or different fonts from the actual fonts used for printing. Therefore, what is displayed is not a true image of the resulting printed article. An approximately sized font in a display image may appear to fit properly, but would overflow when actually printed.
A problem related to this font sizing is that printing and computer displays often use measurements which are not identical. In font sizing, points or picas mean different things depending on what the medium is. Specifying a font size of 12 points will mean different things depending on the font, whether it is printed or displayed on a computer monitor, or if it refers to letter height or spacing between lines. With present systems, it is difficult to present printed article image displays which can be adjusted by a naive user, and cleanly translate the changes into what is ultimately printed. Further, as exact font size and spacing calculations are not performed until the job is about to be printed, mistakes can go undetected until long after the user has selected and placed the order.
Another problem with graphic preprinting software is that such systems may only display text in black and white. Therefore if the printing process would use other colors besides black the full effect cannot be shown in the limited graphic display. Also, if the printing is to be on colored, textured or matted paper or other material, full effect of the final printed article is not viewable. The background appears white, and this limits the users ability to visualize the final product.
Yet another problem with such display systems is that they often depend on standard type alphabets, usually the standard Arabic alphabet used by English and other modem languages. In order to display different alphabets, such as Russian or Hebrew, such display systems often default to using a font consisting of Arabic letters with simply gibberish or blocked characters (called greeking) to fill in for the unusual alphabet. Again, this limits the ability to view what a final printed article will look like.
Still another problem with such interactive display systems is they are difficult to use except by trained personnel such as printing experts. However, with the advent of the Internet and other network based systems a potential market is available for allowing consumers who wish to purchase custom printed articles such as business cards, wedding invitations, bar mitzvah invitations etc., to interact with an application and produce an order for a printed article with very little human assistance. Such printing order forms, as presently available on the Internet do not allow the viewing of the final printed article in a format which exactly resembles the way the printed article will finally appear. Typically, they show standard samples which may only vaguely resemble the resulting customer order. Often, internet browsers have only a limited set of fonts available, and therefore the samples of the printed article, even if the user provides text to use, ends up having to use a xe2x80x9cbest fitxe2x80x9d font to display the results.
The present invention is directed towards an interactive image display system for displaying a printed article as it will appear when printed (subject to limitations of a display monitor). It includes a user interface component, to accept information from a user for producing the printed article, and to provide a graphic image representing the printed article for display to the user; a graphic layout component, to process the information and produce a graphic description file, which is usable for a batch printing process; and an image producing component, to process the graphic description file and produce the graphic image. The user interface component maintains the information from the user, allowing the user to modify a part of the information in order to view changes in the displayed printed article. The user can modify any of the information and layout, including change font sizes by specifying a percentage increase or decrease of a certain font. This maintained information is also used for producing and displaying a different printed article, and also for ultimately preparing and running the print job for the user.
The graphic image is displayed with a background image representing an article to be printed on, such as a paper stock. This background image is sized to be displayed as the same size as the graphic image. Many different types a backgrounds are possible, both different types of paper stocks, and other articles for printing. Other printed articles include wedding invitations, bar mitzvah and bah mitzvah invitations, birth announcements, greeting cards, holiday cards, menus, brochures, signs, banners, tee shirts, hats, etc.
The information from the user includes an indication of a predefined template including layout information for a particular printed article, including at least one area for printing. The graphic layout component uses the predefined template to produce the graphic description file, which is in a format such as Postscript. The instance of the predefined template can also be modified by the user. (change number of lines, type style) etc.
The present invention also provides graphic images representing a plurality of related printed articles from the information from the user. An example of related printed items includes a wedding invitation along with a reply card, which will include common information and font display.
The illustrative embodiment of the present invention is set up to allow users to interactively use the system over the Internet. Users can access a web site, select a printed article such as a business card, enter information and view the results. They can make changes and view the results of those changes. Users can plan and design their own printed materials. They can then place an order, wherein the order will be automatically processed.
Advantages of the present invention include the feature that an interactive user will see exactly what they will get. The displayed image is not an approximation of the printed article, it is an exact replica (subject to the limitations of the display monitor, and effects such as raised ink and paper defects and absorption). Ink colors will be properly displayed, as well as artwork and fonts. Discrepancies which are not apparent until the print job is run will not occur. For example, the image display system will not show that a line of text in a certain font will fit correctly, only to have the printer preparing to run the print job be forced to adjust the font size to keep the text from overflowing. Users can therefore safely adjust everything from point size and line spacing within boundaries as defined by the article to be printed, and be confident that they are viewing what they will order.
Another advantage of the present invention is a fully automated system which requires little or no human intervention to allow users to access, select articles, do trial and error layout, and order printed articles. Further, the entire order processing system is automated. Little human interaction is needed for production of batch printing jobs. Also, users can track their orders during all stages of the process and shipping, for example by interacting with the web site and checking with an order number.